General Meeting 11/02/2010

This association notes that young
teachers often come out of university and teacher training with high debt
levels and are and are facing continued financial hardship caused by the high
cost of living in London. The high cost of living is a decisive factor causing
young teachers to move away from London or to leave teaching in search of a
more highly paid career.

This association believes that:

1.The cost of travel in London is so expensive as to be completely
unreasonable. London teachers spend a significant amount of their wages on
travel.

2.House prices and rents in London remain high despite the
recession. This means that young teachers are unable to find suitable
accommodation, often living with their parents or in shared accommodation. The
key worker living scheme made some difference to this and allowed young
teachers to gain a step on the housing ladder. However, this scheme has got
less attractive each year and there is no longer funding available for home
purchase on the open market.

3.The current London Allowance discriminates against young
teachers who, at the bottom of the pay scale, receive lower levels of London
Allowance than those on the Upper Pay Scale.

This association calls for a London
wide campaign that demands:

1.Free travel cards to be
issued to London teachers in line with the police service.

2.The reestablishment of the
initial key worker living scheme in London which saw teachers able to obtain
equity loans of up to £100,000 in order to purchase a home.

3.To bring London Allowance levels up to the level of those
teachers on the Upper Pay Scale.

4.Amendments to motions to
national Conference. The following amendments were
adopted :

Motion 22 (i)The
economic crisis..

Replace
existing point 4 with:

In Britain, unemployment continues to remain
at 2.5 million with a further 1 million unable to find full-time
work. Despite being the most well educated generation ever,
employment prospects for young people continue to decline, with 1 million
16-24 year olds now categorised as NEET and many more graduates
unable to find employment commensurable with their qualifications,
or being forced to take unpaid ‘internships’.

In point
f:

add new
iv) and re number

Extending job creation schemes for
unemployed young people so as to provide permanent opportunities with training
for all those who want them. Ensuring there are enough university places for
all those who apply.

Motion 22 (ii) The Economic Crisis

Add at end:

Conference notes that recent court rulings against UNITE in the BA cabin
dispute, and the RMT in a dispute with London Underground, have highlighted the
restrictive nature of the anti-trade union laws first brought in by the Tory
government led by Margaret Thatcher.

ii) reaffirm the Union's affiliation to the United Campaign for the Repeal of
the Trade Union Laws;

iii) work with other unions in developing publicity highlighting the restrictive
nature of these laws and to consider submitting a motion to the TUC Congress on
this subject.

Motion 34 Academies

.After “Conference notes that”:

Delete Point 4 and replace with:

“Tory Party spokespersons have talked about putting ‘rocket
boosters’ under the academies programme and to create primary academies. Their
draft manifesto suggests they will create 220,000 new schools places in order
to create a ‘supply side revolution’. This will allow academy chains and other
organisations such as the New Schools Network to set up new schools on the
basis of ‘parental demand’.”

Insert new point 5 and re -number

“In addition to the ‘new or ‘free’ school approach, some on
the Tory right are pushing for the introduction of vouchers and for profit
schooling based on the “Swedish model”. This would represent a radical
extension of privatisation and deregulation threatening the coherence of a
national state education system.”

Delete point 8 and replace with:

“that the CO-OP – a labour movement organisation- is
increasingly involved in promoting trust schools and academies. These can
appear as a progressive alternative to academies run by business, but, however
favourable the terms of the CO-OP Trusts, they remain unacceptable because they
are part of the deregulation and privatisation of the democratically
accountable system of local authority schools.”

After “Conference believes that”:

Insert new point c and renumber

“Tory plans for a radical extension of the market in
education pose a fundamental threat to equality and social cohesion in
society.”

After “Conference instructs the executive to”

Insert new ii) and renumber

ii) to support the AAA national ‘road show’ to debate and
educate parents about the expansion privatisation by encouraging local
divisions to seek new alliances and help organise support for local meetings
and events.

Motion
35 SATS & Assessment

Insert
new sentence before “Conference resolves to”:

‘Conference believes that Assessment should only be for the purposes of
learning and that any attempts to use Assessment for any other reason
invariably leads to an increased workload for teachers.’

Insert new action points after c and re-letter:

‘d. re-iterate the Union’s stance that Assessment should only be for
learning;

e. publish guidance which makes it explicit that any instructions
to record evidence as part of APP will lead to an increased workload and should
become part of a workload campaign.’

52Fighting
Racism and Fascism

Add to point 2 after “English Defence League”:

“and
Welsh Defence League”

Add
at end of point 3:

The
attacks on local shops, cars and mosques in areas where the EDL and/or the WDL
are active

Insert
new paragraphs 6 and 7:

Conference notes with concern the
increased levels of hostility and hysteria towards immigrants, asylum seekers
and travellers in our society, as reflected within both mainstream politics and
in the mass media, and which feeds the racism on which organisations such as
the BNP thrive.

Conference notes the huge contribution
immigrants have made to our society, and to our schools.

Add
new points after Conference instructs the Executive:

(vii) Continue to support teachers and
other members of school communities who are threatened under immigration law –
for example by threat of deportation

(viii) Encourage divisions and
associations to oppose stereotyping of immigrants and asylum seekers, and to
promote balanced discussion of such issues

(ix) Work with relevant organisations to produce
an education pack on immigration and asylum which promotes an informed debate
and can be used in Citizenship and other lessons.

(x) Encourage Associations and Divisions to encourage members to
oppose marches and other activities organized by the EDL and/or the WDL.

Motion 71Defending Our Pensions

nsert after 4th paragraph ending ‘….into poverty
in old age.’

‘Conference
recognises that the current inadequate state pension results in poverty for the
majority of pensioners, particularly women.’

Add new 5 and renumber:

‘campaign
alongside the TUC and the National Pensioners Convention for an increase in the
state pension to £140 per week and thereafter for it to be linked to earnings
or prices, whichever is the higher.’

Emergency
motion on SATs.

While recognising that the NAHT’s decision to hold a
consultation exercise this term on boycotting SATs instead of a formal action
ballot is unhelpful, Islington Teachers Association regrets the subsequent
decision of the NUT NEC to follow suit and only hold only an indicative ballot
of primary members this term.

ITA therefore calls
on the Executive to reconsider its decision at its meetingof October 8th and
to begin the process for an action ballot of all membersas soon as
possible.

We believe that it is important that any retreat by the
leaderships of the NAHT and NUT is not allowed to undermine the momentum of the
anti-SATs campaign.

We welcome, therefore, the commitment by the NUT NEC to step
up the publicity campaign against SATs and in favour of alternative,
educationally valid, forms of assessment.

The aim of this publicity campaign should aim to convince:

·parentsthat SATs are not good for their children

·the government that a continuation of SATs
testing will lose them votes in the forthcoming general election

·our members that they should vote in large
numbers for a boycott of the tests inwhatever ballotis held.

For our part, ITA agrees:

1.To work
to ensure that our public meeting against SATs on 15 October, with Mike Rosen
speaking, is a big success.

2.To
continue to leaflet and petition parents about SATs both in the high street and
outside school gates.

3.To
encourage members in primary school to hold meetings to discuss boycotting SATs
and to invite outside speakers, who will often be branch officers to speak to
them about why we think a boycott is likely to be the most effective way of
achieving our objectives.

4.To
organise a lobby of our local MPs’ surgeries to seek their support for the
early abolition of SATstesting.

We call on the NEC:

·to urgently
produce and distribute to divisions and school groups large quantities of
attractive, popular and accessible anti-SATS publicity material

·to prioritise visiting schools an local
general meetings with a view to convincing members to vote YES in the
indicative ballot

·assuming a positive indicative ballot
result, to move quickly (i.e. at the beginning of the spring term)to a formal ballot for boycottingSATs, alongside the NAHT if possible, but
without them if necessary.

5.Motion on Climate Change.

Climate Change resolution

Islington
NUT recognises that, at the Copenhagen
conference

·“..instead of
committing to deep cuts in emissions and putting new public money on the table
to help solve the climate crisis, rich countries have bullied developing
countries to accept far less. Those most responsible for putting the planet in
this mess have not shown the guts required to fix it.”

Nnimmo Brasso (Friends of the Earth
international)

and
that

·“even if non-binding
pledges made at Copenhagen
are completely fulfilled, there is a 1.5 C gap leading to unavoidable impacts.
The funding for adaptation covers impacts up to about 1.5C, and the mitigation
pledges to cut climate change down to about 3C at the most…leaving 1.5C not
avoided.”

Martin Parry
Imperial College

We
further recognise that this is setting humanity up for a series of catastrophes
that will steadily intensify through the lives of the children we now teach.

In
this context and, given the urgency of immediate action, we

Welcome the appeal made by Bolivian
President Evo Morales for an alternative summit in April to generate a more
coherent global movement to force action (Edited text below, full statement
available at http://cmpcc.
org/ ) and
call for the NUT to send representatives

1.Commit ourselves to
working with FOE, Greenpeace, Campaign Against Climate Change

2.Welcome Islington’s
decision to sign up to 10:10 and call for all schools to do like wise; we will
examine LBI’s three year plan for CO2 reduction when it is produced in February
and report back to members

3.Commit ourselves to working with the
Islington sustainable schools network and extend its impact beyond the dozen or
so schools currently signed up (as schools are responsible for 50% of CO2
emissions from public buildings in Islington).

Bolivian declaration

Climate
change is a real threat to the existence of humanity

·Those most affected by climate change
will be the poorest in the world

·75% of historical emissions of
greenhouse gases originated in the countries of the North

·The failure of the Copenhagen
Conference (was) caused by countries called “developed”, that fail to recognize
the climate debt they have with developing countries, future generations and
Mother Earth;

·To ensure the fulfilment of human
rights in the twenty-first century, we must recognize and respect Mother
Earth’s rights, reaffirm the need to fight for climate justice, recognise the
need to restore harmony with nature;

·Confident that the peoples of the
world will be able to save humanity and Mother Earth,

The
Government of Bolivia calls on the peoples of the world, and
invites scientists, academics, lawyers and governments that want to work
with their citizens to the Peoples’ World Conference on Climate
Change and Mother Earth’s Rights from 20th to 22nd April 2010
in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Objectives:

1)
To analyze structural and systemic causes that drive climate change and propose
radical measures to ensure the well-being of all humanity in harmony with
nature

2)
To discuss and agree on a Universal Declaration of Mother Earth Rights